‘Heartbreaking’ part of Reality Winner’s story apparent to David Frum, but remains secret to others

It was a full week ago that ABC News ran a piece called, “What we know about the leaked secret NSA report on Russia.” ABC’s introductory piece ran before a judge had denied bail in the case of 25-year-old Reality Winner, whom prosecutors said had “a fascination with the Middle East and Islamic terrorism” and had written about “wanting to burn down the White House.”

Prosecutors also said Winner had called her sister and said she would braid her hair and cry in court; “I’m pretty, white and cute,” she added.

ATTN: editor Charles Davis tweeted a bit of ABC News’ June 6 piece Monday night with a screenshot describing what motivated Winner to allegedly share classified material with The Intercept.

According to ABC News, Winner was listening to a podcast during which Glenn Greenwald admitted he’d seen no evidence that Russia was behind election-related hacks. Winner thought she had some, emailed The Intercept, and allegedly provided a copy of a classified NSA report.

Two days later, the FBI was notified of the matter and initiated an investigation to determine the source of the leak.

Further analysis of the documents showed that they “appeared to be folded and/or creased, suggesting they had been printed and hand-carried out of a secure space,” according to the affidavit.

Winner was one of just six individuals who had printed the intelligence document, according to an internal audit of the agency that housed the report. The audit also revealed that Winner was the only individual of the group that had email contact with the news outlet.

Apparently the heartbreaking part of the story can be found in the comments attached to ABC News’ piece.

Proof of collusion? No. Proof that voting machines had been hacked? No. A shot at being the next Edward Snowden? A long one — but the pretty, white, and cute effect seems to have deflected blame for an adult’s decisions onto Greenwald and company.

You're not actually blaming the Intercept for Winner's actions are you?